Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Lincoln East High School's home of Spartan news

The Oracle

Parking Opinions

Bennett Widman superimposed over his worst nightmare
Bennett Widman superimposed over his worst nightmare

As we start to enter colder and colder days, the burden of having to take the quarter-of-a-mile walk up from the Seacrest lot starts to weigh on our shoulders. This brings up the age old questions, what are the ethics of parking up top? Who should be able to park up top? Where do you side in Bennett V. Capital City Towing?

Let’s start with a rhetorical analysis on the validity of our morals. There are 10s of tickets given out every day, but for some reason students keep committing the 8th deadly sin that is parking up top. However, many students, such as Lincoln East senior Will Wilson, justify their actions by saying “I do not want to walk up from the lot” and “If i’m running late from lunch. Desperate needs call for desperate measures”. While scholastically, these excuses make sense, putting school over the rules of a random slab of concrete. However, the more we excuse parking up top the more we breed a generation of “ticket splitters” people who carpool, and will split the fine if one is given. In some ways, these rules aren’t preventing up top parking, but creating a culture of trying to get around breaking the rules. With that being said, many people have criticized institutions such as the “Parking Recognition Program”, as biased and prone to inflating certain individuals. While no proof of this has ever been found, one has to wonder how “it’s never been me?!?!”

To get a firsthand account on the intricacies of this system I talked to Mr. Bennett Widman who recently had a run in with the institution. I asked Bennett if he felt the school was justified it calling Capital City Towing on him: “Yeah, I had numerous warning and was on the tow list”. He went on to say that although he knew it was wrong he “Came late, wasn’t feeling good didn’t think I would be parked that long”. He prevented his car from being towed by saying that he “Paid the $85 on the spot”. Bennett further believes that these events in increasing frequency “Creates a weird standard when they are emphasizing tardies but cracking down on parking up top”. We have it from an anonymous source that although Bennett feels that campus security has a personal vendetta against him, “They (campus supervision) have been waiting to catch Bennett because they knows he parks up top all the time.”

While it is clear that this issue is become more and more polarizing, whatever your stance on the issue, we have a long way to go before we, as a student body can work together, and have an open discussion about these deep philosophical questions that plague our minds every morning and afternoon.